Coming in as an underdog, Brame outlasted Team Secret in a close battle, pulling off a miracle win during the second match to win what might be a decisive factor for the 2022 Dota 2 Pro Circuit Spring Tour standings in Western Europe.
It hasn’t been an easy season for the Greek squad; starting the DPC with three straight losses can damage the confidence of any team, especially one who had only just reformed its core before the Spring Tour started.
Brame walked into its series against Secret with just two DPC wins to their name, knowing that losing another series could place them in line for relegation at the end of the Dota 2 season. And after the first match, many fans may have written off their chances to make a comeback.
However, even though Secret wasn’t that far off from a victory in the second match of the series, Brame was able to turn the tide around with a single strategic call.
After realizing that they had to take action, the team quickly started brainstorming. Split pushing, canceling teleportation scrolls, and backdooring resulted in Focus, playing Anti-Mage, to sell some of his items to purchase an Assault Cuirass and a Divine Rapier at the last minutes of the game.
These two building damage-focused items allowed Brame to chew through Team Secret’s ancient and bring home the victory. Notably surprised by the result, Secret found itself on the backfoot against Brame, dropping the third game of the series in 42 minutes.
Not only did this win matter a lot to Brame, it also shook up the middle section of the standings as teams fight for a spot at the Stockholm Major.
After the series, Brame found itself tied for fourth place with Team Liquid and Secret, holding the tiebreaker over Secret but having lost to Liquid 0-2 in week three of the season. Liquid still hasn’t played its match this week, so the top seed of the previous regional league still has a chance to separate from the pack, but the result certainly opened Brame’s way to a potential fourth-place finish.
“Without this win, we’d be hopeless, we wouldn’t have a chance, but now it feels like we resurrected the team from the dead,” Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos said.
If Brame manages to clutch a win against either OG or Tundra while its rivals, Liquid and Secret, drop even a single game, the team can secure its ticket to the Major, which will take place after the current DPC season wraps up in May.
